Contractor Plans To Trim Timetable On R.22 Lehigh County Lane Closures * If All Goes Well, It'll Cut Daytime Traffic Restrictions To Six Weeks, Down From 11.

February 14, 1998|by DAN HARTZELL, The Morning Call

The state Department of Transportation has approved a contractor's plan to cut the time Route 22 will be limited to two daytime lanes in the Lehigh County part of the highway project.

But preliminary work on eight miles of the highway from the Lehigh River to Route 191, long feared by Lehigh Valley motorists, will begin at 8 p.m. Friday with evening lane closures at the Lehigh River Bridge.

PennDOT on Friday approved the plan by general contractor Lane Construction Co. to remove parts of the embankments on either side of the bridge, creating enough room to reconstruct four lanes at once at the approaches to the bridge. The plan reduces the need for traffic shifting and is expected to cut the time needed for daytime lane restrictions from 11 weeks to six.

If the plan works as expected, peak-travel lane restrictions at the bridge will begin March 31 or April 1, and be completed by May 15, said PennDOT engineer Alfred A. Picca.

If the Meriden, Conn., contractor meets that schedule, one of the worst parts of the dreaded reconstruction project can be cut by more than a month.

If Lane reopens the bridge to four-lane traffic by May 15, "that's five weeks earlier than what our proposal was," Picca said.

PennDOT will pay the contractor $100,000 for each day the company beats the June 19 date set as a limit for the two-lane daytime restriction -- what the department calls "long-term lane closure" during peak-traffic hours.

Though the daytime lane closure related to the bridge reconstruction is the only such restriction anticipated west of Schoenersville Road, there are daytime lane closures planned for the Northampton County section of the work. However, only one such restriction can be effected anywhere on the reconstruction route at any given time, Picca said.

And in any case, the bridge must be kept open to four-lane traffic on the hectic Memorial Day weekend, or the contractor will be charged a penalty of $15,000 per hour, Picca said.

Though PennDOT has worked to restrict peak-travel lane closures, traffic will be limited to two lanes of the four-lane highway during off-peak hours: 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and 8 p.m. Fridays to 6 a.m. Mondays.

Picca said Lane's chances of meeting its mid-May goal for reopening the bridge will depend upon weather conditions, the amount of rock in the earthen embankments and other variables.

PennDOT agreed to let the contractor go ahead with the excavation after studying test-borings of the embankments. Engineers had worried that there might be too much rock in the soil to make the plan feasible.

"The volume of rock on the west side (of the bridge) did not turn out to be as much as anticipated," Picca said. "But there is about 20 percent rock there, so so that still leaves a little bit of an unknown."

Lane's proposal to shave the embankments had been welcomed by Lehigh Valley International Airport officials, who had criticized PennDOT's original plan and urged that ways be found to minimize traffic congestion.

Airport Executive Director George F. Doughty could not be reached for comment Friday.

The $60 million renovation of the heavily traveled roadway, from the river east to Route 191, will continue through November 1999.